As a nonprofit health plan, it is our mission to help "people in our communities live healthier and more secure lives through high quality, affordable health care." As we head into open enrollment, it’s important for groups and members to understand the value of our health plan and how our members and communities benefit from our nonprofit status; specifically our lower margins.

National investor-owned health plans measure their performance by earnings returned to shareholders. One of the benefits of being a community-based nonprofit health plan is that our lower margins help produce lower premiums.

As a nonprofit health plan, our operating margin has averaged just 0.3 percent from 2012 to 2016. Average earnings before interest and taxes are less than one third of the average earnings of large for-profit insurers.

For example, from 2012-2016, if Excellus BCBS and its parent company had the same level of earnings as the four major for-profit health plans, we would have needed more than $1.6 billion more in premium revenue. All of which would have gone to shareholders if we were a for-profit health plan.